Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Nov 29: The Jammu and Kashmir Board of Professional Entrance Examinations (BOPEE) may have to redraw the merit list of the candidates who were selected for various professional courses in the Common Entrance Test (CET) – 2013 as the Jammu and Kashmir High Court didn’t rule out the possibility of defective or erroneous questions asked by BOPEE.
A single Bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court comprising Justice Ali Mohammad Magray today directed: “In the event the claims of a petitioner are found correct, the BOPEE would be bound to redraw its merit list. The functioning of the BOPEE is already under severe scanner. There are grave allegations of corruption rampant in the Organization which are under investigation against its functionaries from top to bottom. It can’t be allowed to play with the sentiments and careers of aspiring students…”
Court passed the directions in response to a petition filed by a candidate, Qazi Basra, who appeared in the CET-2013 and secured 168 marks and was ranked at 00411. She figured at serial number 100 of the selected list and was likely to be recommended for provisional admission to MBBS, BDS, BUMS, BAMS, Physiotherapy and Diploma Dental Hygiene session 2013 in a private institution.
But Basra says that in Biology paper Series – C she had correctly answered question numbers 16, 28, 31, 41, 44, 60 and 70 but BOPEE had applied wrong key for evaluating her merit. She says that correct answers to these questions are options 1, 1, 4, 1, none, 4 and 4 respectively and the options as per the BOPEE key are 4, 2, 3, 3, 4, 2 and 3 respectively.
Basra further claims that she had correctly answered question numbers 32 and 64 of Chemistry Paper Series- C but the BOPEE had provided the wrong key. “The correct answers were option 4 and 2 but BOPEE had described option 2 and 3 as the answers to these questions”, she claims.
The candidate claims that she could have secured nine more marks and her merit position could have risen to 177 and ranking 00195. “By rising to 00195 rank, I could have got admission to MBBS in Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar”, she claims.
Basra claims that she had found that BOPEE had provided wrong keys of 11 questions in CET-2013 in the series in which she appeared.
However, BOPEE in its response to the court has said that after they released the key on their website several candidates made their representations and it were sent to the two experts and paper setters who evaluated it. “Accordingly the key was revised and all the papers were evaluated according to the revised key including those who didn’t make any representation. Thus the benefit of the revised key was given to all those who appeared in CET-2013”, says BOPEE response. It adds that her Biology paper was evaluated and her four answers were found incorrect while benefit was given to other three answers which were found correct.
The court directed the BOPEE to disclose revised keys in Series-C of Biology and Chemistry papers of CET-2013 to Basra on December 1, 2013. She has been asked to file representation to BOPEE by December 3 and by December 5 the BOPEE should send her answer papers to HoDs of Biology and Chemistry in sealed covers. The HoDs have been directed to submit their reports to the court by December 12.
The court has directed that all concerned should follow the calendar of the court strictly so that the candidate may not lose any further time as the classes for MBBS in GMC Srinagar have started in September. The court has said that there is urgency involved in the case and has listed it on December 13.
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